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What do Letting Agents Do?
How do I get Tenants?

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What do Letting Agents Do?
How do I get Tenants?

If you want to become a landlord there are a few things you need to do before putting your property up for rent. First of all you have to ask yourself, would you live in it?

Desirable properties rent quicker and give higher rental yields so making sure your property is ready for tenants and in good condition (everything works) avoids problems further down the line.

Does it need painting? Are all the appliances working and safe? Have you had a gas safe registered engineer check over the boiler and pipework? Do you have an Energy Performance Certificate EPC and is it up to date? Is the property secure? Do you have smoked detectors on each floor?

These are some of the questions you should be asking yourself before you become a landlord. With HMO (Houses in Multiple Occupation) where three or more unrelated tenants live in the same property, there are even more government guidelines you need to be aware of. Large HMO properties even need a licence from the local council.

Then you have to think about the financial implications of being a landlord. What are your financial aims? Are you going to be collecting the rent? What will you do about rental arrears?

Lots to think about? Maybe you are going to need some help. This is where letting agents come in. They will take some of your potential profits but, especially if you are a new landlord, they can prove to be money well spent.

What do Letting Agents Do?

A letting agent is primarily responsible for finding tenants for landlords. Obviously, they are also on the lookout for landlords which we will come to later.

Getting reliable tenants who pay their rent on time and look after your property is what every landlord wants. A vacant property or tenants who don’t pay the rent is a landlord's worst nightmare that can seriously affect their finances and mental health.

A letting agent has multiple marketing platforms available to them to help find tenants for properties all around the country. Many traditional letting agents deal only with the local area but online letting agencies now serve the whole of the UK.

Letting agents have access to systems that allow them to check tenants and their credit history before giving a tenant the key to your home.

Letting agents are experienced at creating tenancy agreements and dealing with issues before the tenants move in.

Letting agents take a fee for finding tenants, taking rent and/or fully managing the property. You can decide which services you need to suit your budget.

How do I get Tenants?

Traditionally landlords would look for tenants by putting an advert in a newspaper or shop window. Now multiple online platforms are available that can be accessed all over the world.

Rightmove in the UK is one of the biggest letting sites in the UK but private landlords don’t have access to it. The only way you can advertise on Rightmove is if you are an agency. This makes letting agents loyal to the platform and improves the quality of the properties uploaded.

Private landlords who don’t want to pay agency fees can use other platforms like SpareRoom, OpenRent and Gumtree. Finding tenants doesn’t seem to be a problem at the moment with a shortage of rental properties but you should still make an effort to photograph and describe your property well.

An agent will have a photographer and experience writing descriptions that resonant with prospective tenants. But don’t let that put you off, many tenants like dealing directly with the landlord.